The Chinese government will take into account the number of homes owned by each family, not each individual, when classifying second-home purchases, according to a statement posted Friday on the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's website.
A family's actual total property holdings will be calculated by including the home ownership of the loan applicant, the applicant's spouse and minor children, according to the statement.
The ministry said banks should ask for higher down payments and mortgage rates if one of the homebuyer's family members already owns property.
It also said even if an individual did not own any property, banks should also treat that person as a second-home buyer as long as he had taken out a mortgage loan previously.
The government has taken a series of tough measures since mid-April, such as raising the amount of minimum down payments for home purchases and mortgage rates, to rein in runaway property prices. The authorities raised the minimum down payment for second-home purchases to 50 percent from 40 percent, while requiring mortgage rates be no less than 1.1 times benchmark rates.
